Intensity

Instead of writing a formal review of Dean Koontz's Intensity, I decided to discuss what I feel about the characters of the book, specifically the antagonist, Edgler Foreman Vess. If you're familiar with most of Koontz's suspense/thrillers, youd find Mr. Vess, as he calls himself, more intriguing than most. His musings about his extraordinary senses and intellect remind me of the antagonists from the Face of Fear. 

It made me wonder when he said that any kind of experience is neutral. Pain, when embraced is the same as its opposite. The intensity of the moment is what defines life. Koontz goes on to discount this claim of course, using the heroine of the story, but I still wonder. Pain after all, makes our joys and triumphs more meaningful. We will never appreciate the beauty of things without the ugliness that surround them. Chyna, the protagonist, also said that it's easier for most people to act cruelly than to do good even if doing good is the easier choice. This is a result perhaps of the reptilian essence that's still within us according to Vess. I refuse to think we're driven alone by our biological impulses, yet I do not deny that most of us act selfishly to survive. If it is for your own good, then why is it bad? Not everyone's interests can be heard anyway. Yet why do we strive to care for other people? Why did Chyna save the captive girl from Vess' twisted world even if she had a chance to escape from he very start?

It's an intense book, and one of the best I read from Koontz. His ability to make the readers think and see both sides of the story still amazes me even after so many years.